Cyber X games hit by bad vibes

THE CYBER X games attached to CES got off to a great start in Las Vegas. Everything was going quite well when disaster struck. Sure there were problems to overcome, but the staff at the games did a wonderful job, pulled out a lot of stops to get everything ready, and it looked like things were near perfect at first.

One of the biggest initial problems was with the cabling. The cable was put in late, and there was less than anticipated. With some all nighters, a raft of temps, and lots of volunteers, things got done on time.

It would be cynical and unfair to intone that MS, being a sponsor of the event, should have done something, it really was not its problem. It did the correct thing, and put patches and fixes out for both problems months ago. MS has even put its best PR people on the security problem, so expect a fixed press release for all the security issues soon, maybe even with an accompanying new company direction! In all seriousness, the people coming to the event should have known better and patched the machines before they got there, and most importantly before they got the #&$^ viruses in the first place.

That problem appears to now be under control, but there is one that is out of the hands of the extremely hardworking Cyber X crew, and that is a problem with Counterstrike and Valve. There is a long series of e-mails between Valve and the Cyber X crew, in which Valve said they would be on site to offer support, and a few other things. Valve didn't show, and what little support it offered came way way too late to make a difference. A hint to companies, when 1200+ of your most rabid fans are in a room together playing the game that made you, and is much of your ongoing income, don't blow off the people who set the event up.

To make matters worse, it put out a 3MB patch in the middle of the gaming session. 1200 people at 3MB per head is 3.6GB, or enough to tie up every line the games had for the better part of 24 hours. Things crawled to a halt very very quickly. Add in that the only way to get the patch was over the fragile Steam network, and you have a recipe for disaster. Could it get worse? Oh yes, top this mess off with a liberal helping of Valve losing a router under the load, and the happy dance was nowhere to be seen among the Cyber X crew.

Of course, little things like making the LAN only version of Counterstrike available, or having a person on site would have made an enormous difference. What was so important that the Valve staff hanging around the ATI booth at CES 2 blocks away could not have stopped in and said hi for 5 minutes?

This problem needs to be rectified, and rectified now. To save a little face, someone from Valve needs to get in touch with the Cyber X people ASAP. You are only 2 blocks away, and you can use e-mail, I know, I have e-mailed at least two of you in the past. Hell, if you need help walking from the convention center, I can escort you. Barring that, take a cab, they cost less than $6 million, so I am pretty sure you can afford it. Lastly, if for some reason you can't reach the Cyber X people, call me personally. Write the 'Flame the Editor' address off the main page, and ask him for my phone number. Whatever you Valve people do, please do it quickly. There are 1200 people waiting for you, and several overworked and somewhat fried admins. Help them, will you?

For added incentive, I will report back in a week or so with the conclusion to this story. Did Valve come through? If it comes through, I will be the first to congratulate it. µ